James is from Cambodia, the country known as the "Killing Fields" after the Vietnam War. He came to know Christ at the age of seventeen. Both James and Vandie escaped the "Killing Fields" into Vietnam where they had been trained as communist soldiers and met. After returning from Vietnam, they escaped again to the Thai-Cambodian border where James became a freedom fighter and later converted to Adventism. In America, he worked as an assistant engineer after he completed his B.S. in electrical engineering from California State University, Long Beach. He then attended La Sierra University and completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Religion. James has been serving as a pastor with the Southern California Conference and he and Vandie have four children, Ruth, Daniel, Jonah, and Jeanette.

Tony was born in New Zealand, but spent five years growing up in Papua New Guinea as a missionary's kid. After graduating high school he took some time to travel the world and worked for the Adventist Church in England, but has also lived in Australia, Canada, and the United States. He began his undergraduate degree in theology at Avondale College, Australia, where he meet Jodi Wall in 2002. They were married in Denver in 2003 and Tony went on to complete his degree at La Sierra University, Riverside. Currently Tony is continuing his education through post-graduate studies at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University and Jodi is the Employment Manager at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. Tony has been a pastor at Norwalk since 2006.